Mangatini

Mangatini was a mining town up around the back of Millerton, north of Westport. I say was, because it no longer exists. The town was the home to about sixty miners and their families, and a colder, rougher place was hard to find. It was reached via the Millerton Track, and through a dank tunnel. The houses were little more than huts, surrounded by steep hills that often were covered in snow. There was a boarding house, run by a formidable lady named Sarah McCANN. She was reportedly a huge woman, who nobody dared to cross. A plain cook, with a heart of gold. Sarah kept her accounts by writing in chalk on the wall, and no doubt many a loan was simply erased.

The population peaked at 100 in 1911, and had dropped to 51 in the 1916 census. By the 1931 census the settlement had ceased to exist.